Como House Excursion

On Monday 31st of July, the Year 1 students embarked on a wonderful excursion visiting Como House and Gardens located in South Yarra. This excursion linked to our Big Question ‘What can places and cultures teach us?’, providing students with the opportunity to inquire into how places and their purposes can change over time. Students went on a specifically designed tour of Como House, learnt about the general life experiences of servants in the 1800s, participated in old-fashioned games and had to use different clues to solve a mystery, whilst making connections between life in the past and present, and why these changes may have occurred. 

Here’s what some of the students had to say about the day: 

Max (1A): I enjoyed the mystery of the broken doll because it was interesting trying to find out who did it. I liked going on the tour inside Como House. The rooms looked old but it was fascinating to see what it looked like many years ago. The washing experience was also fun because we got to use an old-fashioned dryer! We also had to listen to different bells and figure out which room it was connected to, it was slightly tricky to hear the difference. 

Flynn (1B): I found it interesting when I found out that they used a pot to go to the toilet which was hidden in the bedroom. I enjoyed the mystery of the broken doll and we managed to solve it! The old-fashioned games people played in the past were also enjoyable, and I loved learning about what the servants had to do around the mansion too. 

Flo (1C): I really liked learning about what servants had to do back in the days. We learnt that the servants had to learn the sounds of different bells so they knew what room to go to. The mystery was also interesting because when you were trying to solve it, you were doing a tour around the whole area at the same time. 

We would also like to thank all the wonderful parent/carer volunteers who joined us on the day. 

Suzanne Pi